Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book wasproduced from scanned images of public domain materialfrom the Google Print project.)
THE BRASS BELL
OR
THE CHARIOT OF DEATH
A Tale of Caesar's Gallic Invasion
By EUGENE SUE
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH BY
SOLON DE LEON
NEW YORK LABOR NEWS COMPANY, 1907
NEW EDITION 1916
COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY THE
NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO.
PREFACE TO THE TRANSLATION
_The Brass Bell_; or, _The Chariot of Death_ is the second of EugeneSue's monumental serial known under the collective title of _TheMysteries of the People; or History of a Proletarian Family Across theAges_.
The first story--_The Gold Sickle; or, Hena, the Virgin of the Isle ofSen_--fittingly preludes the grand drama conceived by the author. Therethe Gallic people are introduced upon the stage of history in thesimplicity of their customs, their industrious habits, their bravery,lofty yet childlike--such as they were at the time of the Roman invasionby Caesar, 58 B. C. The present story is the thrilling introduction tothe class struggle, that starts with the conquest of Gaul, and, in thesubsequent seventeen stories, is pathetically and instructively carriedacross the ages, down to the French Revolution of 1848.
D. D. L.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Preface to the Translation
Chapter 1. The Conflagration 1
Chapter 2. In the Lion's Den 8
Chapter 3. Gallic Virtue 24
Chapter 4. The Trial 35
Chapter 5. Into the Shallows 41
Chapter 6. The Eve of Battle 52
Chapter 7. The Battle of Vannes 59
Chapter 8. After the Battle 80
Chapter 9. Master and Slave 88
Chapter 10. The Last Call to Arms 102
Chapter 11. The Slaves' Toilet 107
Chapter 12. Sold into Bondage 115
Chapter 13. The Booth across the Way 126
FOOTNOTES
CHAPTER I.
THE CONFLAGRATION.
The call to arms, sounded by the druids of the forest of Karnak and bythe Chief of the Hundred Valleys against the invading forces of thefirst Caesar, had well been hearkened to.
The sacrifice of Hena, the Virgin of the Isle of Sen, seemed pleasing toHesus. All the peoples of Brittany, from North to South, from East toWest, rose to combat the Romans. The tribes of the territory of Vannesand Auray, those of the Mountains of Ares, and many others, assembledbefore the town of Vannes, on the left bank, close to the mouth of theriver which empties into the great bay of Morbihan. This redoubtableposition where all the Gallic forces were to meet, was situated tenleagues from Karnak, and had been chosen by the Chief of the HundredValleys, who had been elected Commander-in-Chief of the army.
Leaving behind them their fields, their herds, and their dwellings, thetribes were here assembled, men and women, young and old, and wereencamped round about the town of Vannes. Here also were Joel, hisfamily, and his tribe.
Albinik the mariner, together with his wife Meroe left the camp towardssunset, bent on an errand of many days' march. Since her marriage withAlbinik, Meroe; was the constant, companion of his voyages and dangersat sea, and like him, she wore the seaman's costume. Like him she knewat a pinch how to put her hand to the rudder, to ply the oar or the axe,for stout was her heart, and strong her arm.
In the evening, before leaving the Gallic army, Meroe dressed herself inher sailor's garments--a short blouse of brown wool, drawn tight with aleather belt, large broad breeches of white cloth, which fell below herknees, and shoes of sealskin. She carried on her left shoulder hershort, hooded cloak, and on her flowing hair was a leathern bonnet. Byher resolute air, the agility of her step, the perfection of her sweetand virile countenance, one might have taken Meroe for one of thoseyoung men whose good looks make maidens dream of marriage. Albinik alsowas dressed as a mariner. He had flung over his back a sack withprovisions for the way. The large sleeves of his blouse revealed hisleft arm, wrapped to the elbow in a bloody bandage.
Husband and wife had left Vannes for some minutes, when Albinik,stopping, sad and deeply moved, said to Meroe:
"There is still time--consider. We are going to beard the lion in hisden. He is tricky, distrustful and savage. It may mean for us slavery,torture, or death. Meroe, let me finish alone this trip and thisenterprise, beside which a desperate fight would be but a trifle. Returnto my father and mother, whose daughter you are also!"
"Albinik, you had to wait for the darkness of night to say that to me.You would not see me blush with shame at the thought of your thinkingme a coward;" and the young woman, while making this answer, instead ofturning back, only hastened her step.
"Let it be as your courage and your love for me bid," replied herhusband. "May Hena, my holy sister, who is gone, protect us at the sideof Hesus."
The two continued their way along the crests of a chain of lofty hills.They had thus at their feet and before their eyes a succession of deepand fertile valleys. As far as eye could reach, they saw here villages,yonder small hamlets, elsewhere isolated farms; further off rose aflourishing town crossed by an arm of the river, in which were moored,from distance to distance, large boats loaded with sheaves of wheat,casks of wine, and fodder.
But, strange to say, although the evening was clear, not a single one ofthose large herds of cattle and of sheep was to be seen, whichordinarily grazed there till nightfall. No more was there a singlelaborer in sight on the fields, although it was the hour when, by everyroad, the country-folk ordinarily began to return to their homes; forthe sun was fast sinking. This country, so populous the precedingevening, now seemed deserted.
The couple halted, pensive, contemplating the fertile lands, thebountifulness of nature, the opulent city, the hamlets, and the houses.Then, recollecting what they knew was to happen in a few moments, soonas the sun was set and the moon risen, Albinik and Meroe; shivered withgrief and fear. Tears fell from their eyes, they sank to their knees,their eyes fixed with anguish on the depths of the valleys, which thethickening evening shade was gradually invading. The sun haddisappeared, but the moon, then in her decline, was not yet up. Therewas thus, between sunset and the rising of the moon, a rather longinterval. It was a bitter one for husband and wife; bitter, like thecertain expectation of some great woe.
"Look, Albinik," murmured the young woman to her spouse, although theywere alone--for it was one of those awful moments when one speaks low inthe middle of a desert--"just look, not a light: not one in thesehouses, hamlets, or the town. Night is come, and all within thesedwellings is gloomy as the night without."
"The inhabitants of this valley are going to show themselves worthy oftheir brothers," answered Albinik reverently. "They also wish to respondto the voice of our venerable druids, and to that of the Chief of theHundred Valleys."
"Yes; by the terror which is now come upon me, I feel we are about tosee a thing no one has seen before, and perhaps none will see again."
"Meroe, do you catch down there, away down there, behind the crest ofthe forest, a faint white glimmer!"
"I do. It is the moon, which will soon be up. The moment approaches. Ifeel terror-stricken. Poor women! Poor children!"
"Poor laborers; they lived so long, happy on this land of their fathers:on this land made fertile by the labor of so many generations! Poorworkmen; they found plenty in their rude t
rades! Oh, the unfortunates!the unfortunates! But one thing equals their great misfortune, and thatis their great heroism. Meroe! Meroe!" exclaimed Albinik, "the moon isrising. That sacred orb of Gaul is about to give the signal for thesacrifice."
"Hesus! Hesus!" cried the young woman, her cheeks bathed in tears, "yourwrath will never be appeased if this last sacrifice does not calm you."
The moon had risen radiant among the stars. She flooded space with sobrilliant a light that Albinik and his wife could see as in full day,and as far as the most distant horizon, the country that stretched attheir feet.
Suddenly, a light cloud of smoke, at first whitish, then black,presently colored with the red tints of a kindling fire, rose above oneof the hamlets scattered in the plain.
"Hesus! Hesus!" exclaimed Meroe. Then, hiding her face in the bosom ofher husband who was kneeling near her, "You spoke truly. The sacred orbof Gaul has given the signal for the sacrifice. It is fulfilled."
"Oh, liberty!" cried Albinik, "Holy liberty!----"
He could not finish. His voice was smothered in tears, and he drew hisweeping wife close in his arms.
Meroe did not leave her face hidden in her husband's breast any longerthan it would take a mother to kiss the forehead, mouth, and eyes, ofher new born babe, but when she again raised her head and dared to lookabroad, it was no longer only one house, one village, one hamlet, onetown in that long succession of valleys at their feet that wasdisappearing in billows of black smoke, streaked with red gleams. It wasall the houses, all the villages, all the hamlets, all the towns in thelaps of all those valleys, that the conflagration was devouring. FromNorth to South, from East to West, all was afire. The rivers themselvesseemed to roll in flame under their grain and forage-laden barges, whichin turn took fire, and sank in the waters.
The heavens were alternately obscured by immense clouds of smoke, orreddened with innumerable columns of fire. From one end to the other,the panorama was soon nothing but a furnace, an ocean of flame.
Nor were the houses, hamlets, and towns of only these valleys given overto the flames. It was the same in all the regions which Albinik andMeroe had traversed in one night and day of travel, on their way fromVannes to the mouth of the Loire, where was pitched the camp ofCaesar.[1]
All this territory had been burned by its inhabitants, and theyabandoned the smoking ruins to join the Gallic army, assembled in theenvirons of Vannes. Thus the voice of the Chief of the Hundred Valleyshad been obeyed--the command repeated from place to place, from villageto village, from city to city:
"In three nights, at the hour when the moon, the sacred orb of Gaulshall rise, let all the countryside, from Vannes to the Loire, be set onfire. Let Caesar and his army find in their passage neither men norhouses, nor provisions, nor forage, but everywhere, everywhere cinders,famine, desolation, and death."
It was done as the druids and the Chief of the Hundred Valleys hadordered.[2]
The two travelers, who witnessed this heroic devotion of each and all tothe safety of the fatherland, had thus seen a sight no one had ever seenin the past; a sight which perhaps none will ever see in the future.
Thus were expiated those fatal dissensions, those rivalries betweenprovince and province, which for too long a time, and to the triumph oftheir enemies, had divided the people of Gaul.